Prosecutors have four months left to charge an arson suspect in the 2003 Old Fire before the statute of limitations runs out, officials and experts say.

Rickie Lee Fowler was identified this week by authorities who say the 27-year-old former San Bernardino man deliberately started the Oct. 25, 2003, wildfire that killed six people, destroyed 1,003 homes and charred 91,281 acres.

Fowler, who is in Salinas Valley State Prison on unrelated burglary charges, is expected to face arson and murder charges.

Although there is no statute of limitations for murder, the opportunity for authorities to charge Fowler with arson expires in October.

Sgt. Frank Bell said he plans to turn over the investigation to the District Attorney’s Office in the near future but wasn’t sure of an exact date.

“We want to avoid getting too close to that statute in case (arson) ends up being our strongest case,” he said.

Fowler was the passenger in a white Chevrolet Astro van driven by Martin Valdez Jr. when he threw a lit flare onto a hillside near Old Waterman Canyon Road, a source close to the investigation said.

The inferno, which raged for nine days across the San Bernardino Mountains, indirectly killed six people. Some died fleeing the flames, others died from stress-induced heart attacks.

Robert Weisberg, a professor at Stanford Law School, said a second-degree murder charge could likely be proven if there was a high likelihood that the fire could kill someone.

“Or they can go for first degree by making the basic crime arson and saying that death resulted from the fire,” he said, adding that “straight-forward premeditated murder” is possible because of the circumstances.

Susan Mickey, the DA’s spokeswoman, said she cannot comment on the ongoing investigation.

But mountain residents who lost their homes in the Old Fire expressed frustration and anger with the district attorney for not filing the case sooner.

Fowler has been a suspect in the blaze since four months after the wildfire started.

“These people never got closure. They never knew who took all their possessions away from them,” said Dave Stuart, executive director with nonprofit Rebuilding Mountain Hearts and Lives.

“We would have felt better knowing one guy was in jail and the other was dead. There is a general frustration with the county district attorney.”

Fowler is the only suspect expected to face arson charges even though there were three men in the van when he threw the flare.

Valdez was fatally shot in Muscoy in 2006 by a man who stopped his vehicle and opened fire after Valdez and his companions yelled and cursed at him.